I have A08 and didn't know that multiple variants exist. No wonder my touch-up stick (bought from dealer) is not a perfect match.

For your question - you may want to stop by your local dealer and ask.

 

what year/model is your E46 ? can you also check under your hood, on the right or left side (the suspension cover thingy), there should be the color code, mine only said silberbrau metallic A08/7.

 

Quite a few of the BMW colors have variants. Even paint brand to paint brand. This is where a good painter comes in handy. Most painters will do a spray out first.

 

yes true, but it starts to get expensive when we (us fanatics) want to do a paint repair ourselves ... so far i bought two cans and still not a 100% match. I guess in a body shop, the mix themselves or redo the formula few times until they get it right !

 

I am not convinced you can get a 100% match. The old paint on the car would have lightened over time. So even if you used the right paint, the new paint would be slightly darker in comparison. For perfection, you probably need to hire a paint specialist. Even then the only way to ensure perfection is to respray the entire car.

To save money, you have to tolerate imperfections. The good things is that you are not stuck with the same car for life. I believe it is better to save money for your next car than to spend money on your existing car. A car is like anything else - it wears out. Keeping it perfect is prohibitively expensive, and this hinders your ability to buy a newer and better car.

 

u're probably right about the matching part ... Why would the paint lighten ? it's protected by a UV resistant clear coat which also would not fade ?

BUT, to buy a new car in today's economy is a no no, at least for me. my car is only 5 yrs old, looking forward to at least few years without car payments ...

 

And now multiply this by 7 and you'll get an idea of what Standox offers. You'll have a prime color and then a few shades lighter/darker not to mention the tints like the green and yellows in the variants you listed. Robert Standox is probably the most comprehensive paint supplier for German cars IMHO. It took 5 shading spray outs just to get my TiAg bumper to match perfectly. The adhesive promotors and flex agents can also contribute to getting a perfect match on the plastic components too. Add alittle age and wear and you get the idea, pretty tough to do with off the shelf spray cans, touch-ups, or dealer supplied paints. If it's worth it to you, go to a professional and have it matched right.

 

I finally got round to mirror finish my DIY painted side skirts. Although the colour match was reasonable, it wasn't perfect. I used OEM paint part number 51 91 0 301 529. The new paint seemed darker and greener compared to the existing paint. The existing paint seemed bluer and lighter compared to the new paint. Having looked in ETK, I don't believe BMW produces more than one variation of silver grey. I also find that the new paint appeared different before and after mirror finish - in that after the mirror finish the match was better. So I would attribute the slight colour mismatch to the number of coats used and the quality of mirror finish. As it was my first attempt in mirror finishing paint, I was being very cautious in compunding in small stages. Once I attain the same mirror finish as the exiting paint, the colour match could well improve.

UV protection for paint would never be perfect. So I believe colour lightening would be inevitable.

 

BMW silver grey sucks nuts.

I have finally gone nuts on my paint obsession. I found that minor variation on separate panels to be tolerable. However making small repairs on a panel caused new paint to show up quite differently against the existing paint. I used BMW spray can with no success - too light. I used paints4u.com spray can with no success - too dark and it reacted badly with certain clear coats. So today I decided to try a third source Halfords - UK equivalent of Autozone. As they were under-staffed, the guy doing the paint mixing let me got involved. First of all, we identified the colour using some kind of industrial standard colour code software. The paint code on my car was A08/7. When we pulled up the colour, there were 5 variations:

A08 4177 Silver grey
A08 4177/G Silver grey
A08 4177/B Silver grey
A08 4177/Y Silver grey
A08 4177/D Silver grey II

Then, related to these codes we found 4 to 5 variations of WA08 codes which were also silver grey or silver grey II. Not knowing which of these would work for me, I bought all 5 of the A08 variants hoping one of these would be close. But there was no guarantee and effectively I was just throwing my money away with all the dumbass paints I bought on this and previous occasions. Still, I learnt how to mix paint today, and the cost of the paints could be seen as the fee for the paint mixing class. This is how it was done:

1. Select a particular colour from the software, and the software returns the actual weight of each colour dyes required to mix for the chosen colour
2. Mount a special mixing cup atop a can of colourless aerosol
2. Pour each bottle of dye into the mixing cup according to the required weight
3. Stir the mix somewhat unenthusiatically with a stirrer resembling the wooden stick of an ice-lolly (ice-pop)
4. Use a mechanical contraption to pump the mixture into the can
5. Shake and test spray the can. Done

I noticed that the different variant of the silver grey did not involve using different set of the dyes. It was just the same set of dyes but with each dye having a different proportion in each variant. The exception being the A08 4177/D Silver Grey II. This needed an additional dye. Even thought this was a Silver Grey II, I bought it anyway because it had the A08 code.

If I can get my hands on the rather simple mixing equipment and the colour code software, I believe I can mix my own paint for perfect match. It would just involve experimenting and change the predefined dye proportions for the colour I want slightly. An extra drop of red here and one fewer drop of black there could make me a master paint mixer. Now I am getting the crazy idea of wanting to buy my own mixing equipment.

 

BMW silver grey sucks nuts.

I have finally gone nuts on my paint obsession. I found that minor variation on separate panels to be tolerable. However making small repairs on a panel caused new paint to show up quite differently against the existing paint. So today I decided to try a third source Halfords - UK equivalent of Autozone. First of all, we identified the colour using some kind of industrial standard colour code software. The paint code on my car was A08/7. When we pulled up the colour, there were 5 variations:

A08 4177 Silver grey
A08 4177/G Silver grey
A08 4177/B Silver grey
A08 4177/Y Silver grey
A08 4177/D Silver grey II

Hi there

Which of these was the closest to A08/7 ?

 

Nice instruction. It is quite helpful. Thanks for it.

 

opcorn:

 

Just to inform others, A08/7 on a Convertible (circa 2003 thru 2005) is a much darker silver than the A08 Titan Silver.

The nearest match I could find in my local Halfords is Ford Nimbus Grey. It's a tiny bit too light although maybe after a clear lacquer coat, might be pretty much spot on.

So if you need paint to just touch up something, that's the one to go for.